Can any sleuths comment if I'm on the right track?

Hello,

Thanks for the recap at the bottom - always good to put the known data together :)

People lied about their age to get jobs and record keeping was not always accurate, they even told lies about their age when getting married to seem older or younger. One way around this is to use as much data as possible to calculate the birth - is 1865 correct is the question

The death cert would give an age? In Ireland for older people it was only necessary at first to get within five years but at least you have a number to work with?

Between 1860 and 1870 there were 52 William Cummings born in the whole of Ireland (32 counties) according to the State Records of Ireland (these begin in 1864.   

irishgenealogy.ie

Next, your man will be documented in census data somewhere - in Ireland there is only the 1901 and 1911 census available but in England there will many more for the time period, again ages will be given If he was on a ship the name might be abbreviated to capital letters.

If he was enlisted in the Royal Navy there will be no end of documents but they may not be online that might help identify full names - when given two names the first was usually confusing because there would be so many others with the same name. It also allowed individuals to choose which name they were known by. Most Irish people would not have or carry a birth cert.

Then if you are not sure or want to check out a record, you can also search for known or possible brothers and sisters? Other people with the same surnames

Hope this strategy of going around the problem helps.

Shay

Hi Shay, thanks for the response!  I've found quite a few documents (1 English Census, 5 US Censuses).  And it seems for all the documents he was primarily involved with, his birth year is 1865 (Naval Record, Marriage Cert, British Census).  His birth year according to other documents varies between 1864-1871, and those were primarily filled out by his wife, or another household member (speaking about the US censuses).  As far as the Royal Navy, I've only been able to obtain his service record which lists his name, birthday, birth place (generalized to "Ireland), the year he signed up, a general physical description, ships he served on, etc...  As well as when he went AWOL (he went AWOL in Halifax, Nova Scotia).  He then made his way across the US border and met up with his wife and her family in upstate New York.  I suppose my biggest hangup is the discrepancy between him naming his father as "William" on his marriage cert, and his wife naming his parents as Patrick and Bridget on his Death cert.  Perhaps I'm missing a key piece, or maybe he was on the run, or something entirely different...    I just don't see a motive for his wife to lie/mislead a coroner as to who his parents were.   And if Quinlan is a corruption of the name Cullinan, it's pretty lucky that someone else made the same mistake at his birth, and that's if he is actually "Patrick."  Time to start on the siblings...

Thanks again!

Matt

Derry......   
Glasderry Beg Townland, Co. Offaly (townlands.ie)

Hi Margot, that's mostly the point to the "residence" question.  The civil record lists "Derry" and the baptism also lists "Derry."  So in the immediate area of Shinrone is Glasderry Beg, Glasderry More, and Derrymacedmond.  So has anyone run into situations where a townland has a nickname or a short-hand reference like that?  Again, the only townland that is plain "Derry" is abt 21km to the northwest of Shinrone; which seems like a bit of an outlier to the other residences, but not outside the realm of believability...

Matt